U.S. Army X-Country at Maymont (VA)
Results: Invitational Girls | Invitational Boys
Photos taken by John Herzog of VA Milesplit
Carolyn Baskir, East Chapel Hill Blake Williams, Northern Durham
East Chapel Hill's Carolyn Baskir won the Invitational, defeating the Blacksburg duo of Kathleen and Joanna Stevens. Carolyn is coming off a spectacular 17:24 at WakeMed last week and continued to prove she is one of the top runners in the region with her win on the very tough Maymont course. Carolyn cracked 18:00 for the 3rd time this season, running 17:42 for the win. Carolyn also ran 17:58 at the Seahawk Invitational earlier this month.
The East Chapel Hill girls are one of the top 4A teams in the state this year. They managed a 6th place finish in the elite race at Maymont. Here's how they looked:
Carolyn Baskir, 17:42
Allison Smith, 19:22
Claire Gildard, 20:26
Maggie Meshnick, 21:10
Pega Kamrani, 21:29
In the boys Invitational race another one of the state's best runners took the top spot. Northern Durham's Blake Williams ran 15:32 to win by one second. This time ranks him up among the best who have run this course. Patrick Campbell or Mooresville ran 15:44 on this course his senior year and later was an All-American at Foot Locker Nationals. Blake has definitely proved he is going to be in the mix for the 4A state title this year.
John Harwell of Asheville placed 9th overall in 16:12. Asheville's Isaac Presson placed 15th in 16:26. They helped lead Asheville to a 12th place finish in the Invite race.
Greensboro Cross Country Invitational
Results: All results
Photos: PrettySporty Images
Jake does it again!
Proving last weekend was no fluke. Jake Hurysz of Eastern Alamance led the way with another very quick time. Jake ran 15:25, making him the 3rd fastest runner every to cover the 5k distance at Hagan Stone Park. Once again, Jake's win was by a slim margin, but this time 2nd place was a different face. Reidy Jones of Broughton HS was able to pull away from the small group and finish right behind Jake with a time of 15:26.8. His time is the 5th fastest in the course's history.
Speedy Wesley stays UNDEFEATED!
Wesley Frazier of Ravenscroft is coming off of two big wins the last couple weeks. Now she has her third Invite win and 5th sub-18:00 performance of the season. Wesley clocked a 17:50 which is well off her 17:05 and 17:10 from the last couple weeks, but a win is a win. Wesley also set a new course record with her win, taking down the 17:52 set by Julia Lassiter Lucas of Myers Park. Julia went on to in Atlantic Coast Conference titles for NC State University.
In the boy's championship race the Chapel Hill boys prevailed by 1 point over the boys from Sanderson. Chapel Hill has been running with a pretty tight pack of guys all season and this performance was no different. Leading the way for them was Kyle Villemain in 16:13. Their 1-5 spread was 38 seconds, but if you throw in Will Bunch who won the Developmental race in 16:36, their spread would have been 23 seconds. Coach Olsen says he is looking for a couple of guys to get the courage to take a risk and try to run upfront, but that no one wants to lose their top-7 spot. This is the deepest team in the state and now they proved they may be the fastest as well.
Sanderson was the top 4A school, defeating Broughton, who beat them last weekend at the Wolfpack Invite. It looks like the 4A state title is truly going to come down to which ever team races well on that given day. Should be VERY exciting.
The invitational boys race had 11 guys break the 16:00 barrier which definitely makes it the fastest GXCI race in history.
The girl's championship race, the Hidden Valley team out of Virginia dominated the rest of the field. They placed their top 5 in the top 23 with their top 4 in the top 10.
Samantha George of Millbrook, pictured right, was the next NC finisher behind Wesley. George placed 3rd overall, running 18:36.9.
The Chapel Hill girls team really stepped up in the Championship race as they finished 2nd behind the Hidden Valley team from Virginia. Chapel Hill was picked as the preseason 3A favorites, but hadn't looked like state champs until their GXCI performance. Chapel Hill was able to defeat some of the top 4A teams in the state. West Johnston's girl were 3rd overall with 150 points while Terry Sanford scored 162.
In the Invitational boys race the individual title came down to a sprint at the end. John Spencer Wolfe of Polk County used his track speed to win by 8 tenths of a second over Tevin Richardson of Nash Central. Tevin led coming out of the woods with about 1000m to go, but John hung tough and was able to outkick him coming up the hill.
Charlotte Catholic's boy took the team title with a score of 132, while Nash Central scored 145. Nash Central was missing their #1 runner, Will Bass. These two teams look to be in good position to battle for 3rd place at the NCHSAA state championships. Right now Chapel Hill and Eastern Alamance look to have separted themselves from the rest of the 3A teams.
Jamie Vezolles of Charlotte Catholic ran 19:13 to win the individual title in the Invitational Girls race. Jamie got away from Providence Day's Katie Lonergan as they approached the hill with about 1000m to go. Jamie increased the lead over the last 800m for a 13 second victory. Katie Lonergan ended up 3rd as Carrboro's Grace Morken overtook her in the last 500m or so. Grace, a freshmen, finished with a time of 19:26.
She helped lead the Carrboro girls to a team title, winning by 5 points over Charlotte Catholic.
U.S. Army X-Country at Maymont (VA)
Results: Invitational Girls | Invitational Boys
Photos taken by John Herzog of VA Milesplit
Carolyn Baskir, East Chapel Hill Blake Williams, Northern Durham